Save the Queen
by Adara
Summary: Agrias and Ovelia at Zirekile Falls. Written for Yuletide 2007.


_notes_: I had not played the new PSP version of the game as of when this game was written, and so all names follow the spelling in the original PSX version of the game. I'm likely playing fast and loose with the timeline in terms of people in the party knowing Ramza's background, but I find it rather hard to believe that Agrias wouldn't guess at Ramza's background after Delita taunted him about Dycedarg in the battle at the waterfall; the two of them were both in the Hokuten, and Ramza is from a famous family.

"Save the Queen"

The Princess is in a right state when the knave finally returns her at Zirekile Falls, which really shouldn't be so surprising as Agrias finds it. Of course she would be soaking wet, the heavy brocade and velvet of her dress and mantle all but ruined from running through the falls and her slippers scuffed from sliding over wet rocks to try and stay out of Gafgarion's way (and damn him, what is he playing at? Does he really have so little honor, mercenary or not? Ramza Ruglia and his squire have already proven that those who fight for money need not be curs who only follow their purses) until that knave managed to run him off. How humiliating, that even the man who kidnapped the Princess in the first place has more concern for her welfare than for the pockets of the warring Princes and how they may be best brought into his possession. But there will be time enough for thoughts of Gaff Gafgarion and what he so richly deserves later, when the Princess' safety is ensured and they aren't on the outskirts of a city whose territory belongs to neither Prince; while the Bart Company seems neutral, Agrias is not fool enough to believe that they will pass over an advantage like having the Princess Ovelia in their custody.

"Are you all right, Princess?" Agrias asks, even though she has already asked it three times before. It is such a strange sight to see her in water-strained clothes, her hair loosed from its intricate braiding and mud on her face, that Agrias cannot help but think that she is injured despite all her assurances to the contrary.

"I am fine, Agrias." If her temper grows thin from Agrias' constant questioning of her health, Ovelia is far too well-bred to show it. She is, after all, a Princess; dignity and etiquette come to her as easily as she breathes, and she is elegant even when she has been jumping from stone to stone over a waterfall. "As if I could come to harm with you, your new friends, and Ser Delita all watching out for me. That man and the soldiers of the Hokuten did not stand a chance against the likes of all of you."

Inspiring such confidence in the Princess is simultaneously a wonderful thing and a terrible thing; while it is a thing worthy of pride to know that she is part of the reason the Princess can look at them all with her chin high despite the state of her person right now, it is also perhaps the greatest responsibility that Agrias has ever had (or will ever have!) in her life. She is reminded of that now, as the Princess is generous even in her assessment of her kidnapper; she speaks of him at his best, helping to defend her against her enemies as surely as Agrias ever has, and not at his worst as Agrias would. She cannot help that she will never be able to think of this Delita, as Ramza and the Princess have named him, as the man who carried her charge away from Orbonne on the back of a chocobo. This is what Agrias fights to defend, the woman so generous that she calls her own kidnapper Ser as if he is a man worthy of the title.

"The presence of the Hokuten worries me," Agrias admits, because they are seated far enough away that the rest of their company will not hear her. Though Ramza has proven this day that he does have more honor than a common sellsword, she knows that he lies about who he is. She has suspected for some time, because Ramza is not so common a name in Ivalice that she does not associate it with the youngest Beoulve son, and their mysterious malefactor-turned-benefactor's taunts at the falls had confirmed it. He would not have said such things, bringing up Lord Dycedarg and the Hokuten, if they did not fight alongside Ramza Beoulve. She has not heard so much as a whisper about his return to the knights, but that means nothing; nobles are as skilled at keeping secrets as they are at maintaining dignity. It is certainly possible, nay, more than possible, that his presence his more than it seems. He may be Ser Ramza in more than the Princess' pretty words yet. "It pains me to admit, but there may be something to what the man said. Prince Larg and the Hokuten may be behind this." Even worse than this Delita (she supposes he deserves a name, though certainly not the Ser, out of gratitude for his actions at Zirekile Falls) speaking the truth is that this being the truth means Agrias has been a dupe in this entire plot, that her own superiors have sent her into the white lion's den while allowing her to believe it to be the black she should fear.

"I did not think they would take things this far," the Princess says softly, and in that moment-- with her subdued, in the low light of evening, it is almost possible to think of her as Ovelia and not the King's daughter. "Perhaps it was naive of me, but I did not think something like this would happen. Tell me-- they did not hurt Father Simon?" Perhaps, then, she is not so blindly adoring of her kidnapper, and she deserves more credit than Agrias gives her. Surely she would not need to ask if Delita had hurt anyone at the convent if she truly thought that his motives were pure.

"Father Simon is safe." She cannot say that he is fine, of course, because he is badly shaken and worried for the safety of the Princess. He is a good man, and seeing a woman kidnapped in front of his eyes does not leave him without pain and worry. "Did this man-- this Delita-- give any hint to who sent him?"

"He said that he wished for me to be free, just as he said. He told me nothing he did not also tell you this afternoon." Princess Ovelia, because she hovers on a line between the dignified Princess and the girl Ovelia who sits in the shadows after a frightening day, smooths down her ruined skirts in what would be a nervous gesture in someone of lesser breeding. A girl groomed to be Queen of Ivalice does not have moments of nervousnesness, not even one who needs Agrias' protection. The scorn of nobles is, after all, not something that her champion can protect her from. "I believe him, Agrias. I believe..." She trails off, looking up with pale sad eyes. "I believe-- nay, I know-- that you are not privy to the plans of the Hokuten, no matter that you wear their colors. You would never do such a thing. He told me that you were hired, to a one, by Prince Larg and that you were going to have me executed. I do not believe everything that he says, Agrias, because I know that you have not betrayed me."

"I swear it, by God, that I knew nothing." Agrias speaks with conviction because it is the truth, and the Princess is not so old and jaded that she cannot see it for what it is. In that moment, she is no longer Ovelia Atkascha the girl or even Princess Ovelia, but the woman who will be Queen; she takes one of the water-spotted pink ribbons from her lopsided braid and holds it up. She has lost her gloves at some point, and her hands are bare and reddened from climbing over the wet rocks.

"He has not supplanted you as my champion, Ser Agrias," she says, and reaches up to tie the ribbon around Agrias' arm. It feels dated and childish, as if Agrias were about to represent her in a play duel with some other noble's man and not in a very real struggle to save her life. Gafgarion is not one to take lightly, and she does not know where this mysterious Delita comes from. There is even the possibility that Ramza Ruglia is a wolf hiding in their midst (or would a lion, perhaps, be more appropriate?) and will bring the Hokuten down upon them, or that the Nanten will make their allegiance in this strange plot known. There are a thousand things that can go terribly wrong on this very night, and this is no time for games. Not even the games of nobles, vicious by any other standards they are.

"I thank you, your Highness."

Perhaps someday she will look at this ribbon and remember the favor of the Queen; perhaps she will look at it and regret allowing such foolishness. For now, though, she can only accept it because it is all she can do to protect the Princess.


End file.
